What is the difference between smithing and smelting

Case hardening is a seldom used carbon-increasing method, wherein prolonged exposure to heat for upwards of 10 hours is joined by packing the piece into a powdered charcoal or carbon-rich substance. Hardening must be completed afterward. These metal treatments to increase strength have been used over time to create metals designed to serve different purposes.

Depending on their intended usage, they may require one or more of these practices, just as certain gauges and strengths of steel or other metal may be required of a modern day fabrication company for modular or structural use. For example, modular construction requires stronger welds because the pieces are transported fully or partially assembled.

Metals for these uses may benefit from being tempered and hardened, depending on a multitude of factors. An alloy is a mixture of metal and another element. Characterized as a metal bonding character, an alloy can be made from a solution of solid elements or a mixture of metallic phases. Used in a variety of applications in modern times, alloys were used in ancient times to bring forth practical characteristics in metals.

Examples of alloys are most commonly steel, aluminum alloy bonded with copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin or zinc , solder, brass, pewter, bronze, and amalgams.

Alloys were used traditionally in strengthening, lightening and increasing the workability of certain metals for certain applications. For example: steel, an alloy consisting of iron and other elements like carbon, was widely used in plating and weaponry upon its invention around BC. Nowadays, the use of alloys is much the same. One particularly popular modern iteration of an alloy exploration is in Ford vehicles , which have opted to use aluminum alloys — blended with magnesium and silicon, as well as high-strength steel where applicable to increase strength and decrease weight in pickup trucks.

Combining two pieces of metal, whether through modern welding or traditional forge-welding, has been a staple of fabrication and metal manipulation for millennia. The most typical ancient method for joining metals together is through heating and hammering them manually. Known as forge-welding, the joints can be achieved in a number of ways, notably via a Lap Scarf Weld, or a Vee weld, wherein ends are crafted and prepped for hammering. Welding can be broken into two arenas: fusion and diffusion welding.

Fusion is common in the gas or electric welding of today, while diffusion relies on joining the metals without melting them in a solid state. In ancient and medieval times, forge welding was used to create everything from farming implements to weaponry, gates and prison cells. Forge welding is still practiced today, usually through a mechanized process involving a heated press, which presses overlapping metals together, creating a weld.

Modern steel pipe is often forge-welded during the manufacturing process using a specially shaped roller to continually press and shape the welds or joints into a continuous seam.

Many alloys and modern materials can be forge-welded, like carbon steel and even aluminum alloy. Dedicated excavation techniques were developed and refined for both sites, aiming at optimal recovery of both technological and archaeological information. The excavated materials were comprehensively analysed using relevant scientific analytical techniques, which included the development and application of a calibration method for quantitative bulk chemical analysis of iron- rich materials by XRF.

Combining laboratory data and fieldwork, this thesis explores the particular lime- rich and iron-oxide-poor nature of the Hammeh slags as a function of the composition of the local ore and the sacrificial contribution of technical ceramics tuyeres and furnace wall.

Furthermore, it compares the smelting operations at Tell Hammeh with the smithing at Tel Beth-Shemesh, both in terms of their respective archaeological contexts as well as of their technological residues. This aims at the identification and reconstruction of the chaine operatoire of the technologies at both sites. The reconstructed technological processes are discussed in terms of their place in the socio-economic and cultural context of the early first millennium BC of the Levant.

Beyond providing new data about early iron metallurgy, the integrated archaeological and laboratory approach, the excavation methods applied, the analytical methodology, as well as the archaeometric data presented here may serve as a model for the excavation, interpretation, or comparison of future and previous discoveries of iron metallurgy in the Near East.

Gullapalli, Praveena, "Smelting and smithing: The organization of iron production in Early Historic southeastern Rajasthan" Dissertations available from ProQuest. Advanced Search. Privacy Copyright. Skip to main content. View More.